The movement of the fleet does not happen overnight, especially on a large scale, which can lead to a lot of movement before the operation, for example, in order to support the fleet's operations in the Far East, Manila's port facilities must be expanded. At the same time, in order to support at least five large armored cruisers, Spain had to stock up on supplies, and Welsh white coal, the best coal for warships, became a top priority. And the first movement of the Spanish fleet was discovered by the British!

The Spanish government procured thousands of tons of Welsh white coal and shipped it to the Far East on British merchant ships. The British informed the Japanese of this news at the first time. And the Spanish government ordered 11-inch shells from Germany. This batch of shells will also be shipped to the Far East, and under the silver bullet offensive of the US Embassy in Germany, Krupp also secretly leaked some intelligence to the Americans! So, the Japanese and the Americans knew about the movements of the Spanish fleet almost at the same time!

And it is precisely because of this news that the plans of the United States and Japan have once again come to naught! For the United States and Japan, there is a high probability that their enemies will turn into 2! Whoever wants to occupy the Philippines will be attacked by the other two, which is very rare in the history of warfare, and the three sides are enemies of each other!

Whoever strikes first is more likely to suffer, and neither the current Japanese fleet nor the American fleet is sure to fight the other two at the same time! Before that, both the Japanese and the United States had the idea of striking first, and the Japanese even planned to wait for the return of the two warships, Nisin and Izumo, to prepare for the operation, while the Americans were preparing to start the operation in March 1898, by which time, the leased Russian fleet should have been prepared in the French concession in Shanghai, and when they left for the territory of Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, they could begin!

The most important thing in formulating a strategy is uncertainty, and both Japan and the United States know what the Spaniards are doing. But they could not determine exactly how much of the Spanish fleet could be transferred to the Far East in the coming months. And this problem is especially important for the United States, if all the elite of the Spanish fleet are transferred to the Far East, it will be easier for the Americans, and the other 3 battleships will pack up and prepare to bypass the Americas and rush to the Far East! I have to say that the overall strength of the American fleet at this time is still very strong! After adding 3 battleships, the Americans thought that they were enough to crush the fleets of two countries, Spain and Japan!

"Actually. We don't need to worry about planning, it's best to go on the offensive as soon as our combat power is at its peak! The Japanese fleet will not have a big increase in combat effectiveness after receiving two large armored cruisers, and it will take a long time for the Spaniards to turn Manila Bay into a fortress and send their entire main fleet there, and when the Russian cruisers are in place, our forces will also stabilize, and with the German facilities, it will be of limited use to send three more battleships. ”

"Judging from the time when the strength of the trilateral fleet reached its peak, Japan was the earliest. Then we and finally the Spaniards, in this case, we should naturally proceed according to the original schedule, after all, the formation of battleships to the Far East itself is a difficult thing to predict, how long it will take to go this way, and what the condition of the ships will be after the completion are all questions, so it is not realistic to pin hopes on the battleship forces. "Dewey is still a little level. In a telegram he insisted on following the established plan, when the reinforcements from the American mainland and the Russian fleet arrived. Attack now and keep up with the change!

And when this telegram was sent to the top of the Navy headed by Roosevelt, it really gave people a feeling of being sudden! That's right! After the Russian fleet joined, the US Far Eastern Fleet had 11 warships of various types! In addition to not being able to defeat the British Far East Fleet on such a scale, it is not a big problem to fight any of them! The Spanish fleet was full of about 5 armored cruisers, and the only Spanish battleship was now being repaired in France (this is a historical fact).

There are 8 warships of more than 6000 tons in the US fleet! The total number is 11 ships, which are deduced according to the war games. The U.S. Far East Fleet defeated the Spaniards in a battle, and there was no problem at all! There were only five warships in the Japanese fleet with a tonnage of more than 7,000 tons, and even if the two large armored cruisers were powerful, the Americans thought that they had a chance of winning more than 70 percent. After that, cover the army to launch an attack on Luzon.

"As long as the Japanese and the Spaniards do not join forces, we will definitely win this naval battle. General Dewey's advice was feasible, and when our strength reached its peak, we should first occupy Davao Bay in the southern Philippines as a base, and then wait for the opportunity to go north, as long as we were well prepared, the Japanese fleet would not have a chance. Our battle will not be harder than it was decades ago when we opened the doors of Japan. Simpson said.

"Lieutenant Colonel Magifin, what do you mean?" Roosevelt asked purely out of courtesy, and although Magiffen was the only admiral in the U.S. Navy with actual combat experience, the arrogant Americans looked down on the war in the Far East, especially as white Americans, who themselves had an inexplicable sense of superiority over other people of color. Roosevelt also didn't think that the Americans would lose if they really fought, and those Japanese dwarfs would fight a naval battle? What a joke! The U.S. Navy also fought with the British back then! The naval base was burned, but there were many victories!

"The tactical level of the Japanese Navy should not be underestimated, at least after I returned to the US Navy, I think the US Navy is inferior to the Japanese Navy in terms of gunnery. It is even worse than the Beiyang Naval Division. Magifin's kind reminder was not heeded by the US Navy's top brass, and the most direct result of this statement was that the naval officer, who had just returned to the United States from the Far East, was once again kicked to the Far East, and he was assigned to Dewey as a staff officer.

In the end, the Americans made limited adjustments to their plans, in addition to completing the movement of the naval fleet as soon as possible, and at the same time increasing the number of landing troops, Roosevelt drew up a plan to assemble the Marines in San Francisco immediately after "an incident" occurred, and worked with the army to complete the build-up of troops as quickly as possible, and then rushed to the German Pacific colonies by boat, and after the fleet attacked, the landing force immediately followed, occupied important cities, and then created a given fact.

Although Roosevelt considered the possibility of a conflict between the United States and Japan, from the bottom of his heart, Roosevelt did not think that Japan would dare to take action against the United States, after all, the US Navy easily broke the door of Japan several decades ago. "With such a powerful fleet deployed in the Far East, the Japanese probably don't even have the guts to make a move, right?" After the meeting ended, Roosevelt muttered to himself as he looked at the charts on the wall.

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